Polio Vaccination Efforts Begin in Conflict-Torn Iraq

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Unicef and the World Health
Organization yesterday began a four-day campaign to try to
vaccinate 4 million children for polio in Iraq, a difficult task
in a region ravaged by fighting.

More than 600,000 children have been displaced by conflict,
as fighters from Islamic State, an insurgent al-Qaeda offshoot
in Iraq and Syria, battle the government and forces from the
semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq’s north.

“We want to reach every child regardless of where they are
or under what control,” said Juliette Touma, a Unicef
spokeswoman by phone from Amman, Jordan. The vaccine has already
been distributed to several parts of Iraq.

The Iraqi vaccination push is part of the broader global
polio response that was planned when a case was discovered in
Syria last year after 15 years of absence, Touma said. Unicef is
a global aid agency focused on children’s welfare.

Islamic militants have undermined vaccination in other
countries. In Nigeria, one of three countries where polio
remains endemic, the Islamic group Boko Haram is suspected in
the abduction of health workers and the killing of nine others
last year.

It’s too early to tell whether Islamic State will allow
vaccinations by the aid agencies in cities it controls, Touma
said. Unicef and WHO are coordinating closely with the Iraqi
government and the regional Kurdistan government, Touma said.

In cities including Mosul, which the insurgent group
controls, there are “still technical people on the ground” who
may be able to administer the vaccine, Touma said. Unicef has
not been in contact with Islamic militants, according to Touma.

‘Critical Time’

“The situation is very fluid,” Touma said. “It comes at
a very critical time because beyond who controls which area,
there are many internally displaced people.”

There have been two recent cases of polio in Iraq after 14
years without the disease, according to Unicef. The violence
there has made vaccinating young children difficult, and the
conditions caused by refugees fleeing conflict have made
transmission of infectious diseases more likely and making
vaccinations more urgent, Unicef said in a statement.

Polio is a highly infectious virus that can cause minor
symptoms in about 1 in 4 of those infected. About 1 percent of
those infected become paralyzed and may die, according to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is no
cure but vaccines have controlled its spread in most countries.

The WHO declared polio a public health emergency of
international concern in May and reaffirmed that determination
on July 31. The virus, once considered largely contained, could
spread rapidly in “polio-free but conflict-torn and fragile
states,” the WHO said in the statement. There have been 135
cases of polio so far this year, according to the WHO.

Worldwide polio cases fell to a record low of 223 in 2012,
then rose to 416 cases in 2013.